Cancer Ward - Quiz
Cancer Ward
  • 1. What is the nature of Kostoglotov's attraction to Zoya?
A) Purely intellectual
B) Mostly physical
C) Deeply spiritual
D) Based on shared political views
  • 2. What is Zoya's profession?
A) Doctor and researcher
B) Pharmacist and lab technician
C) Nurse and medical student
D) Surgeon and administrator
  • 3. Who is Vera Gangart?
A) A visitor from the zoo
B) One of Kostoglotov's doctors
C) A fellow patient in the hospital
D) A head nurse in the cancer ward
  • 4. What best describes Vera Gangart's marital status before meeting Kostoglotov?
A) Widowed with several children
B) Secretly engaged to an exile
C) Young and recently divorced
D) Middle-aged and has never married
  • 5. Why do Zoya and Vera invite Kostoglotov to stay overnight?
A) Because the hospital demanded they monitor him
B) Because he is still recovering from a major surgery
C) Because he has nowhere to sleep due to his exile status
D) Because he lost his wallet at the train station
  • 6. How does Kostoglotov imagine his ideal devotion to Vera?
A) To buy her expensive gifts from the city market
B) To lie at her feet like a beaten dog and breathe on her feet
C) To travel with her to Ush-Terek immediately
D) To write political poetry about her beauty
  • 7. What realization does Kostoglotov have about Russia and himself toward the end of the novel?
A) He can easily integrate back into normal society
B) Russia is finally recovering and a golden age of freedom has begun
C) The damage done was too great, and there will be no healing now that Stalin has gone
D) Stalin's absence will instantly cure all societal ailments
  • 8. Where does Kostoglotov go on the day of his release from the hospital?
A) To the railway station in Ush-Terek
B) Back to his apartment in Moscow
C) To a government office for exile registration
D) To a zoo
  • 9. Whom does Kostoglotov see in the animals at the zoo?
A) Foreign leaders
B) People he knew
C) The doctors from the ward
D) His prison guards
  • 10. Why would Kostoglotov not want to break into the cages and liberate the animals?
A) Because the cages were locked with unbreakable steel
B) Because deprived of their home surroundings, they had lost the idea of rational freedom
C) Because the animals looked completely happy in captivity
D) Because he was afraid of being arrested by the zookeepers
  • 11. What was the reason the Macaque Rhesus was blinded?
A) It contracted a severe disease from a visitor
B) It stared directly into the glaring sun
C) It was part of a cruel medical experiment
D) An evil man threw tobacco into its eyes
  • 12. What struck Kostoglotov most about the sign on the Macaque Rhesus's cage, apart from the cruelty?
A) The fact that it was written in English
B) The absence of propaganda
C) The poor spelling in the note
D) The mention of Stalin's name
  • 13. How did Kostoglotov view the attacker who threw tobacco at the monkey?
A) As a victim of the political regime
B) As just an evil man
C) As an agent of American imperialism
D) As an anti-humanist propagandist
  • 14. After wandering around town, what does Kostoglotov decide regarding Zoya and Vera?
A) He decides to marry Zoya immediately
B) He decides against going to see them
C) He sends them both a formal invitation
D) He goes to Zoya's apartment for dinner
  • 15. What happens when Kostoglotov finally finds the courage to go to Vera's place?
A) She slams the door in his face because he is late
B) He gets lost and never reaches her apartment
C) They have a wonderful evening and make plans to wed
D) He has left it so late that she is no longer there, and he decides not to try again
  • 16. What physical concern does Kostoglotov have due to his cancer treatment?
A) Hormone therapy may have left him impotent
B) His legs will remain paralyzed
C) He might lose his eyesight permanently
D) His voice will be completely destroyed
  • 17. What does Kostoglotov decide to accept from life in the end?
A) To accept less than he had hoped for and face it alone
B) To fight for a high-ranking political position
C) To demand compensation from the hospital
D) To travel the world with Zoya
  • 18. Where does Kostoglotov head after leaving town and deciding against visiting the women?
A) To the local police station to report his exile status
B) To a hotel in the center of the city
C) To the railway station to fight his way onto a train to Ush-Terek
D) Back to the cancer ward to ask for more treatment
  • 19. What is Ush-Terek?
A) The distant village to which he had been exiled
B) The hometown of Vera Gangart
C) The capital city where he was born
D) A famous health resort in the mountains
  • 20. What does Kostoglotov write in his goodbye letter to Vera from the station?
A) That he is moving to America to escape his past
B) That he is returning to the hospital to marry her
C) That he blames her for his impotence
D) That she will come to bless the day she did not commit to share his life
  • 21. What hidden desire does Kostoglotov confess to Vera in his goodbye letter?
A) That he hated her intellectual conversations
B) That he wanted to borrow money from her for his train ticket
C) That he always wanted to pick her up and kiss her on the lips
D) That he planned to steal her apartment
  • 22. What is the primary setting of the novel?
A) A GULAG prison camp
B) A squalid hospital
C) A botanical garden
D) A luxury sanatorium
  • 23. Where was Kostoglotov living in internal perpetual exile before the hospital?
A) Kislovodsk
B) Tashkent
C) Leningrad
D) Kazakhstan
  • 24. Where was author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn born, unlike his character Kostoglotov?
A) Kazakhstan
B) Leningrad
C) Tashkent
D) Kislovodsk
  • 25. Where was Kostoglotov born?
A) Kislovodsk
B) Tashkent
C) Moscow
D) Leningrad
  • 26. Who represents bureaucrats and the nature of power in Stalin's State?
A) Jeffrey Meyers
B) The clinic doctor
C) Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov
D) Kostoglotov
  • 27. What is Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov's profession?
A) Personnel officer
B) Literary critic
C) Natural healer
D) Military general
  • 28. Which local landmark of Tashkent is mentioned in the novel?
A) Mirabad Amusement Park
B) Chorsu Bazaar
C) Red Square
D) Issyk-Kul Lake
  • 29. Who is the author of Cancer Ward?
A) Fyodor Dostoevsky
B) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
C) Leo Tolstoy
D) Anton Chekhov
  • 30. What prize has the author of the novel won?
A) Booker Prize
B) Nobel Prize
C) Pulitzer Prize
D) Man Booker International Prize
  • 31. In what year was the novel Cancer Ward completed?
A) 1936
B) 1966
C) 1955
D) 1968
  • 32. How was the novel initially distributed in Russia in 1966?
A) Official state publishing houses
B) Samizdat
C) Radio broadcasts
D) State-run newspapers
  • 33. In what year did several European publishers publish the novel in Russian?
A) 1966
B) 1970
C) 1968
D) 1956
  • 34. Where did English excerpts of the novel appear in April 1968 without the author's permission?
A) The Guardian
B) The New York Times
C) Times Literary Supplement
D) London Review of Books
  • 35. Which UK publisher released an unauthorized English translation of the novel first?
A) Penguin Books
B) HarperCollins
C) Macmillan
D) The Bodley Head
  • 36. Which US publisher released an unauthorized English translation of the novel after the UK release?
A) Simon & Schuster
B) Doubleday
C) Random House
D) Dial Press
  • 37. What is the number of the cancer ward where the story takes place?
A) Ward 7
B) Ward 13
C) Ward 5
D) Ward 20
  • 38. In which city is the hospital located?
A) Tashkent
B) Leningrad
C) Moscow
D) Kiev
  • 39. In which Soviet republic is the hospital located?
A) Ukrainian SSR
B) Soviet Uzbekistan
C) Georgian SSR
D) Byelorussian SSR
  • 40. In what year is the story set?
A) 1968
B) 1966
C) 1955
D) 1936
  • 41. Who is the main character of the novel?
A) Andrei Rublev
B) Oleg Kostoglotov
C) Yuri Zhivago
D) Ivan Denisovich
  • 42. What was Oleg Kostoglotov's designation before being exiled?
A) Economic saboteur
B) Foreign spy
C) Counter-revolutionary
D) Double agent
  • 43. Under which article was the main character exiled to Central Asia?
A) Article 120
B) Article 42
C) Article 58
D) Article 10
  • 44. During which years did Stalin's Great Purge take place according to the text?
A) 1941–1945
B) 1950–1953
C) 1924–1928
D) 1936–1938
  • 45. What did the ordinary citizens have to do during the verdicts according to a patient's quote?
A) Demand the firing squad
B) Remain completely silent
C) Sign petitions for pardon
D) Protest outside the courthouse
  • 46. Which MVD chief's fall preceded the timescale of the novel?
A) Lavrenti Beria
B) Nikolai Yezhov
C) Genrikh Yagoda
D) Viktor Abakumov
  • 47. Which leader's 'secret speech' denouncing Stalinism occurred after the novel's setting?
A) Georgy Malenkov
B) Leonid Brezhnev
C) Mikhail Gorbachev
D) Nikita Khrushchev
  • 48. In what year did Nikita Khrushchev deliver his secret speech?
A) 1956
B) 1953
C) 1955
D) 1966
  • 49. Which senior Stalinist's fall takes place during the time of the novel's action?
A) Vyacheslav Molotov
B) Nikita Khrushchev
C) Lavrenti Beria
D) Georgy Malenkov
  • 50. Who does the monkey in the zoo scene represent according to Solzhenitsyn's appendix?
A) The political prisoner
B) The censor
C) The camp guard
D) The average worker
  • 51. Which zoo animal is reminiscent of Stalin alongside the man who threw tobacco?
A) The squirrel
B) The bear
C) The tiger
D) The macaque
  • 52. What does the squirrel running itself to death represent in the novel's symbolism?
A) The political elite
B) The camp inmates
C) The proletariat
D) The secret police
  • 53. When did Solzhenitsyn finish writing Cancer Ward?
A) Mid-1966
B) Late 1964
C) Mid-1968
D) Early 1965
  • 54. Which Russian literary magazine received the manuscript of Cancer Ward in June 1966?
A) Dial Press
B) Novy Mir
C) Times Literary Supplement
D) The Bodley Head
  • 55. Who was the editor of Novy Mir who equivocated and requested cuts?
A) Lev Leonidovich
B) Tvardosky
C) Joseph Pearce
D) Kostoglotov
  • 56. Where was the meeting of the Central Writers' Club held on 17 November 1966 to discuss the novel?
A) London
B) Moscow
C) Leningrad
D) St. Petersburg
  • 57. Who wrote that attendance at the Central Writers' Club meeting was higher than usual?
A) Vera Kornilyevna
B) Tvardosky
C) Joseph Pearce
D) Solzhenitsyn
  • 58. To whom did Solzhenitsyn give an unauthorized interview about The First Circle?
A) A Japanese journalist
B) An American publisher
C) A British editor
D) A French novelist
  • 59. What is the name of the doctor who treats Kostoglotov with particular kindness?
A) Olympiada Vladislavovna
B) Ludmila Afanasyevna Dontsova
C) Yevgenia Ustinovna
D) Vera Kornilyevna Gangart
  • 60. Who is the head of the radiotherapy and fluoroscopy section who falls ill?
A) Vera Kornilyevna Gangart
B) Yevgenia Ustinovna
C) Ludmila Afanasyevna Dontsova
D) Zoya
  • 61. Who is the nurse and student doctor in training who is one of Kostoglotov's love interests?
A) Zoya
B) Olympiada Vladislavovna
C) Elizaveta Anatolyevna
D) Nellya
  • 62. Who is the head of the surgeon section who used to work in a prison camp?
A) Joseph Pearce
B) Tvardosky
C) Lev Leonidovich
D) Nizamutdin Bahramovich
  • 63. Which gifted surgeon wears too much lipstick and is an avid smoker?
A) Zoya
B) Vera Kornilyevna
C) Yevgenia Ustinovna
D) Olympiada Vladislavovna
  • 64. What promotion does Nellya receive at the end of the book?
A) Clinic director
B) Radiotherapy head
C) Food orderly
D) Head surgeon
  • 65. Which orderly does Kostoglotov discover used to live near him in Leningrad?
A) Elizaveta Anatolyevna
B) Olympiada Vladislavovna
C) Nellya
D) Zoya
  • 66. Who is the head of the clinic and a non-competent specialist absent throughout the book?
A) Joseph Pearce
B) Nizamutdin Bahramovich
C) Tvardosky
D) Lev Leonidovich
  • 67. Which experienced and competent nurse is taken away to attend an unimportant conference during much of the action?
A) Nellya
B) Elizaveta Anatolyevna
C) Zoya
D) Olympiada Vladislavovna
  • 68. What does Kostoglotov's last name mean?
A) Life taker
B) Soul stealer
C) Heart breaker
D) Bone swallower
  • 69. Where is Kostoglotov exiled in perpetuity?
A) Leningrad
B) Moscow
C) Ush Terek
D) Siberia
  • 70. What illness does Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov suffer from?
A) Melanoblastoma
B) Lymphoma
C) Rectal cancer
D) Spinal cancer
  • 71. Who is Pavel Nikolayevich married to?
A) Alla Pavlovna
B) Maika
C) Ludmilla Afanasyevna
D) Kapitolina Matveyevna
  • 72. What is Vadim Zatsyrko's profession?
A) Geologist
B) Librarian
C) Doctor
D) Prosecutor
  • 73. What disease does Vadim Zatsyrko suffer from?
A) Rectal cancer
B) Spinal cancer
C) Melanoblastoma
D) Lymphoma
  • 74. What is Aleksei Filippovich Shulubin's profession?
A) Smuggler
B) Geologist
C) Overseer
D) Librarian
  • 75. What illness does Aleksei Filippovich Shulubin suffer from?
A) Rectal cancer
B) Lymphoma
C) Spinal cancer
D) Melanoblastoma
  • 76. What is Asya's profession?
A) Librarian
B) Student
C) Gymnast
D) Poet
  • 77. What medical procedure does Asya require in the clinic?
A) Removal of a tumor
B) Mastectomy
C) Amputation of her leg
D) Brain surgery
  • 78. Who is the mild-mannered Tatar who resides on the landing of the cancer ward?
A) Sharaf Sibgatov
B) Ahmadjan
C) Yefrem Podduyev
D) Maxim Petrovich Chaly
  • 79. What illness does Sharaf Sibgatov have?
A) Rectal cancer
B) Melanoblastoma
C) Crippling spinal cancer
D) Lymphoma
  • 80. Which patient makes a full recovery and appears to be a prison camp guard at the end of the novel?
A) Sharaf Sibgatov
B) Yefrem Podduyev
C) Ahmadjan
D) Friedrich Federau
  • 81. What is Ahmadjan's nationality?
A) Russian German
B) Ukrainian
C) Tatar
D) Uzbek
  • 82. What author does Yefrem Podduyev begin to read in his final days?
A) Leo Tolstoy
B) Anton Chekhov
C) Lavrentiy Beria
D) Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • 83. What was Yefrem Podduyev's former occupation?
A) Geologist
B) Prison camp guard
C) Strong overseer
D) Smuggler
  • 84. Who is the exiled Russian German who remains a loyal member of the Communist Party?
A) Dormidont Tikhonovich Oreshchenkov
B) Friedrich Federau
C) Dr. Maslennikov
D) Maxim Petrovich Chaly
  • 85. What was Maxim Petrovich Chaly's profession before the cancer ward?
A) Prison camp guard
B) Smuggler
C) Librarian
D) Geologist
  • 86. Who is Ludmilla Afanasyevna's teacher and a respectable doctor with a private practice?
A) Dormidont Tikhonovich Oreshchenkov
B) Dr. Maslennikov
C) Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov
D) Maxim Petrovich Chaly
  • 87. Who are Kostoglotov's exile neighbours and friends who also spent seven years in prison camps?
A) The Kadmins
B) The Federaus
C) The Oreshchenkovs
D) The Rusanovs
  • 88. What is Alla Pavlovna Rusanova's other name and profession?
A) Kapitolina, a librarian
B) Aviette, a poet
C) Ludmilla, a doctor
D) Maika, a gymnast
  • 89. What is Yuri Pavlovich Rusanov's profession?
A) Overseer
B) Prosecutor
C) Geologist
D) Smuggler
  • 90. Which doctor writes to Kostoglotov about the benefits of chaga in curing cancer?
A) Dr. Maslennikov
B) Ludmilla Afanasyevna
C) Dormidont Tikhonovich Oreshchenkov
D) Aleksei Filippovich Shulubin
  • 91. What is chaga, according to Dr. Maslennikov's letter to Kostoglotov?
A) A type of root
B) Mineral extract
C) Mountain herb
D) Birch fungus
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